Literature
Though Finnish written language could be said to exist since Mikael Agricola translated the New Testament into Finnish in the 16th century as a result of the Protestant Reformation, few notable works of literature were written until the 19th century, which saw the beginning of a Finnish national Romantic Movement. This prompted Elias Lönnrot to collect Finnish and Karelian folk poetry and arrange and publish them as Kalevala, the Finnish national epic. The era saw a rise of poets and novelists who wrote in Finnish, notably Aleksis Kivi and Eino Leino.
After Finland became independent there was a rise of modernist writers, most famously Mika Waltari. Frans Eemil Sillanpää was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1939 – so far the only one for a Finnish author. The second World War prompted a return to more national interests in comparison to a more international line of thought, characterized by Väinö Linna. Literature in modern Finland is in a healthy state, with detective stories enjoying a particular boom of popularity. Ilkka Remes, a Finnish author of thrillers, is very popular.
Read more about this topic: Culture Of Finland
Famous quotes containing the word literature:
“The literature of the inner life is very largely a record of struggle with the inordinate passions of the social self.”
—Charles Horton Cooley (1864–1929)
“This is not “writing” at all. Indeed, I could say that Shakespeare surpasses literature altogether, if I knew what I meant.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)
“I see journalists as the manual workers, the laborers of the word. Journalism can only be literature when it is passionate.”
—Marguerite Duras (b. 1914)